Meet the Experts

Paul Lyon, FRCR, DPhil, MRes, MSc, BSc, PGDip is the associate clinical director of the high-intensity focused ultrasound unit at the Oxford University Hospitals National Health Service (NHS) Foundation Trust and co-director of the Focused Ultrasound Centre of Excellence at the University of Oxford. He has more than a decade of clinical and preclinical research experience in therapeutic ultrasound and its applications. He delivered the first clinical trial to demonstrate safety and efficacy of the use of focused ultrasound to facilitate targeted drug delivery to solid tumours (TARDOX Study, Lancet Oncology).  Dr. Lyon is also a consultant radiologist who performs minimally invasive and noninvasive image-guided tumour ablation procedures such as microwave, cryoablation, and therapeutic ultrasound for cancer patients at the Churchill Hospital, Oxford.

Elsa Fouragnan, PhD, is a professor of Neuroscience at the University of Plymouth in the United Kingdom (UK). Her research interests include studying the neurobiology behind decision-making and learning within the framework of computational neuroscience and participating in the development of focused ultrasound neuromodulation in humans and non-human primates (NHPs). She has become passionate about using ultrasound neuromodulation to change neural activity in precise parts of the brain, especially the deep targets responsible for core cognitive and motivational processes.

Eleanor Stride, PhD, OBE, FREng, HonFIET, is a statutory professor at the University of Oxford’s Institute of Biomedical Engineering—and part of the institution’s Focused Ultrasound Center of Excellence. After completing her academic training at University College London (UCL) followed by a Royal Academy of Engineering Research Fellowship, Dr. Stride moved to Oxford in 2011. Over the past 15 years, her expertise in microbubble design and drug delivery has led to discoveries that may change the way that patients receive toxic drugs like chemotherapy and high-powered antibiotics.

Sophie Morse, PhD, is a research fellow at Imperial College London who specializes in using focused ultrasound for immunomodulation for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases and brain tumors. She launched her research laboratory just two years ago and has already established an impressive team. We spoke with Dr. Morse about her background, research goals, and what she sees for the future of this technology.

David Cranston, MB. ChB., MA, D.Phil, FRCS Eng, FRCS Ed, is the clinical director of the high-intensity focused ultrasound unit at the University of Oxford. He has worked in focused ultrasound for more than 20 years and was integral to securing the first Chinese focused ultrasound device in the Western world. He has since researched the technology’s potential to treat many tumors, including uterine fibroids and cancers of the kidney, liver, pancreas, and sarcomas.

Professor Constantin Coussios, PhD, is the Director of the Institute of Biomedical Engineering and the Statutory Chair of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Oxford. He received the Silver Medal of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2017 for his contributions to the clinical translation of novel technologies and was subsequently elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng) in 2019. He was appointed an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his services to biomedical engineering as part of the Honours List during Queen Elizabeth’s Jubilee Birthday.

Prof. Wladyslaw “Wady” Gedroyc, MBBS, MRCP, FRCR, is a consultant radiologist at St. Mary’s Hospital, Imperial College National Health Service (NHS) Trust, and has been a champion of focused ultrasound for more than 20 years. He has used focused ultrasound to treat over 800 patients, beginning with women with uterine fibroids for many years and, more recently, patients with essential tremor and tremor-dominant Parkinson’s disease.